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This study examines the incidence and causes of foster home breakdowns—the unplanned removal of children from foster care. Results indicate that successful placement was most highly associated with the caseworker's expenditure of energy and degree of contact and rapport building.

To assess the effects of physiological feedback during actual exposure to a feared situation and during a subsequent exposure, 60 speech-anxious subjects were exposed to one of five false feedback conditions during the second of three consecutive speeches: heart rate decreasing, no change in heart rate, heart rate increasing, and two control procedures. No anxiety differences were found among the groups on the second (feedback) speech. The heart rate increase group displayed significantly higher self-reported anxiety, overt anxiety signs, and speech disfluencies during the third (posttest) speech than the heart rate decrease and no-change groups. Initial exposure to the speech situation produced striking heart rate reaction in the total group, and repeated exposures continued to elicit strong, though gradually habituating, reactions.

Child guidance clinic cases were reviewed for abuse history, diagnosis, depressive symptoms, and suicidality. Many depressed abused children were found to have been previously diagnosed exclusively with conduct-related versus affect disorders. The results suggested that abused children are at specific risk of developing depression and suicidality and that a subgroup of those with early-onset depression may have acquired the disorder concurrent with parental abuse.

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